THE DAY NETANYAHU USED MURDER TO BECOME PRIME MINISTER

Editors Note: I have previously published information here regarding the 9/11 attacks that suggests the possibility of the Mossad being involved in 9/11 in some capacity, or at the minimum, having had advanced knowledge not passed on to US intelligence. This information has brought (the seemingly automatic) accusations of Anti-semitism (sometimes rabid) that seem to be the norm when anyone criticizes Israel in almost any capacity. Given my wife is 3/4 Jewish and many of my dearest friends are Jewish, such an accusation toward me is patently absurd. The evidence is there for Mossad connections to 9/11, like it or not..

This interesting piece by Barry Chamash demonstrates that corruption, even to the level of murder, is present in Israeli politics just like in the US, and that criticizing the actions of a corrupt Israeli government are not a comment on Jews in general (anti-semitism) or even the Israeli people, at least not any more than suggesting that the ruthless foreign policy of the US is a reflection of large segments of our populaces deluded nationalism and selfishness.

I asked you not to vote. But only a third agreed. So here is what is being connived for you wasting your time: The “nationalist” camp won 65 seats, while the”moderate” camp won 55 seats, including 11 Arab parties. The Jews swamped the “peace” camp. But that camp had one party that got the most votes, Kadima, and the nation’spresident, Shimon “the Pieman” Peres, comes from Kadima. So, although the nationalist leader Binyamin Netanyahu could put together a government in a matter of days, the “moderate” leader Tzipi Livni will get the first shot at government-building by Peres. It’s going to take a pile of bribery and blackmail but she’s going to cobble together a coalition including Yisrael Beitenu, Shas, Labor, and get ready, if the fight becomes deadly enough, even their true ideological partner, the Likud.

Sounds bizarre, the loser becomes the winner? It’s nothing. I was on court, front and center, for the rigging of the 1996 Israeli elections by Netanyahu. Now follow closely, I rarely have the opportunity to be nostalgic.

On April 3, 1997, I was supposed to lecture at Hebrew University on Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin, organized by my still formidable friend, Brian Bunn. As it turned out, the Labor Party led by Knesset member Eitan Cabel, and the secret service, Shabak, organized a violent rally against me that turned me into front page news. The intent was to humiliate me, the result was to start my new career as a political crimes writer. Not that I’m thanking them. They didn’t mean to and it’s an insecure life. Not that there aren’t rewards, like you reading this.

The morning after the riot, I received a phone call from Yaacov Mor. He introduced himself as, “The economist for the Minister of Welfare And Social Affairs, Eli Yishai.” Today Yishai is the leader of the Shas Party. Mor continued, “But I previously worked for the Shabak. What I want to know is what you have that made the Shabak try to bury you.”

So I invited Mor to my home to see my evidence. Back then I had some 80 documents, not the 2500 I ended up with, but they were devastating in proving Yigal Amir did not shoot Rabin. I had the police ballistics results showing that Rabin was shot at point blank, something Amir could not have physically done, and I had the hospital reports declaring that Rabin was shot 3 times, and once from the front, neither of which Amir was responsible for.

Yaacov was a naturally sympathetic fellow, and without hesitation I handed him my evidence collection, which he read in silence over the next half hour. When he finished, he put his right index finger vertically over his lips and used his left hand to guide me outside. When we reached the street, he said, “I’m not talking in your house. You have to be thoroughly bugged. Do you know those documents are authentic?”

I said I did.

“Then why didn’t you get a job in Nepal or have an ‘accident?’ Do you know how high up this murder had to go?”

I answered that I did know how high up it had to go.

“I’ll tell my Minister what I saw and I’m sure he’ll contact you.”

The next morning Eli Yishai’s secretary called me. “Minister Yishai would like to have your documents and in return, will give you the most important story of the Rabin assassination. Do you agree?”

Indeed I did. In fact, I would have given the documents anyway, that’s how much I still believed in the inherent honesty of the political system. That would change for good in the next two days.

Bright and chipper, Yaacov picked me up for the cheery ride to building Kirya 3, opposite the Knesset, and home to Eli Yishai’s office. I made a little error, giving my documents to the secretary before I closed the deal. She guided me into a small office, closed the door, and I heard a vigorous conversation in the hall outside. Finally, the Shas Spokesman, Yitzhak Sudri, then 24 or so, and today I believe he holds the same job, came in, shut the door behind him and sat down.

“The Minister could not attend the meeting,” he announced, “But he wants you to know that he backs every claim I will make.” A bit of a comedown but I accepted the arrangement, like I really had a choice.

“It’s about the 1996 elections…Netanyahu didn’t win. Peres won by 3% just like all the polls had it. But the Likud had documents, and we think you’ve collected some of them. We’re sure of it, actually. In February of ’96, the leaders of the Likud met the leaders of Labor for a frank discussion of the elections. The Likud presented the documents, then someone, we think Netanyahu, held a few in his hand and said, ‘If you bring up the name of Yitzhak Rabin even once in your campaign, we’ll release these to the media.” Netanyahu lifted another bundle of documents and said, ‘If Peres wins our tv debate, we’ll release these.” Finally, he takes all the documents and says, “And if Peres wins the elections, we’ll release them all.”

“Now, I don’t have to remind you that Rabin’s name was not mentioned once in Labor’s campaign and that Peres looked like a scary monster on the tv debate. But how could the election results be faked? We are going to leave you the name and phone number of a Tel Aviv law school PhD candidate. His thesis is on the ’96 elections. He’ll tell you.”

I arranged to meet the PhD lawyer-to-be at a very empty and remote Tel Aviv restaurant. We sat in the remotest table and he made his voice inaudible at a range of five meters, in fact he almost whispered the whole meeting. It turns out, it didn’t help.

“This Labor-Likud partnership destroyed over 160,000 votes for Peres, and replaced them with spoiled ballots.”

Back to the present. That’s almost 5% of the vote spoiled. In the 2001 elections, there was a highly publicized campaign to deliberately spoil votes as a protest, and ‘only’ 61,000 were spoiled. “Think back to the election night. Peres is declared the winner by all the polls but refused to address and thank his crowd in Tel Aviv. But at midnight, a smiling Netanyahu addressed a half empty rally in Jerusalem promising them that by morning he will be Prime Minister. Then at 2 AM, the revolution in vote change appears out of nowhere. By the morning, Netanyahu wins. He knew the results were fixed.”

The lawyer-to-be added, “I trust you. I have strong proof that the vote destruction was organized by Interior Minister Chaim Ramon. Contact me tomorrow and we’ll meet again to see my thesis.”

The next day, he called me. “I got a phone call. We can’t meet.” I asked, “Do you mean today?” He replied, “I mean ever.” He banged down for good and I don’t recall his name. But I told his story to audiences whenever I felt it was appropriate. The usual reaction was, “So why didn’t Netanyahu use the documents to get rid of Peres and Labor for good?” The answer is Labor and Peres have enough information on Netanyahu to have made this a one election deal. That’ll do until and if the whole story is ever told by someone who was there.

Then, in Bet Shemesh in 2001, I told the story to a crowd of over 80 and one response hit the jackpot. The man added, “I was an election poll supervisor and when the polls closed, we took votes for Peres out of the boxes and burnt them out back. We replaced them with spoiled votes and resealed the boxes. I never understood who allowed this to happen, but I didn’t want Peres elected so I played ball.”

As for story back-up, my Bet Shemesh organizer was David Morris. Another 80 people heard the truth about this man’s polling station at the lecture. As for Sudri, I chose to expose him after he appeared at Peres’ 80th birthday bash. I was protesting outside when he appeared. I told him, “How could you celebrate Peres? I know what you told me.”

He walked by, then turned around and shouted, “You’re ruining the country.”

So when I suggest that voting props up a political system run by murderers and their aiders and abetters, recall that as Shimon Peres gives Tzipi Livni the nod to form a coalition including Eli Yishai’s Shas Party. But if Netanyahu is somehow given the first shot, recall that he still holds the big cards on Peres.